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Posted in: AMC, Review, TV, Walking Dead | Tagged: amc, dead city, episode 3, Review, Season 1, The Walking Dead
The Walking Dead: Dead City Season 1 E03 Review: Secrets & Confessions
AMC's The Walking Dead: Dead City S01E03 "People Are a Resource" finds old ghosts having some major impacts on Maggie and Negan's plans.
Heading into AMC's The Walking Dead: Dead City S01E03 "People Are a Resource" (directed by Kevin Dowling and written by Keith Staskiewicz), Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) and Maggie (Lauren Cohan) have new allies on their side in the forms of Jonathan Higginbotham's Tommaso, Karina Ortiz's Amaia, and Michael Anthony as Luther. But the trio doesn't realize that they're teaming up with two people with a whole lot of ugly backstory between them – not to mention Negan's past with The Croat (Željko Ivanek). And let's not forget how easily Negan was able to flip the switch and revert back to his old "Saviors" ways – or how Negan seemed more ashamed that she saw him than she seemed in seeing it.
And speaking of The Croat, the madman has caught himself a valuable prize in the form of Armstrong (Gaius Charles) – and he plans on putting the marshal into the ring. And in the midst of all of this, Ginny (Mahina Napoleon) begins a very personal (and dangerous) personal journey of self-discovery. Was that a whole lot going on? Yup, and yet each storyline was given just the right amount of attention needed to keep each of them moving forward – as the threads began to tie together. And just when you think you know just how complicated things are going to get, a couple of twists are thrown our way that could change the game in a big way. With all of that in mind, we're throwing on the "MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD!" sign and throwing down an image spoiler buffer as we take a deep dive into "People Are a Resource" to offer more reasons why TWD: Dead City continues to set the blueprint for a revitalized TWD universe.
The Walking Dead: Dead City S01E03 "People Are a Resource" Notes
The weight of pulling off the backstory between Negan and Ginny was squarely on Morgan's and Napoleon's shoulders, and they nailed it in ways that offered us some serious The Last of Us vibes. Bonus points to Napoleon for performing without words yet finding ways to create them with her facial expressions, body language & subtly expressive eyes. And that moment when Negan teaches Ginny to use Lucille's whistle was an extra kick to the feels.
"She's tougher than she looks… and she looks tough as shit.": Negan to Amaia, regarding Maggie – demonstrating a respect he's had for her even back during his "Saviors" days.
As impressive as Morgan was slipping back into his old "Saviors Negan" skin, he matches that and then some as he describes his own story in the third-person to make it a possible live-saving teachable moment – ending with both Negan and Maggie agreeing that the people rising up to take "the hammer" back worked.
In the following scene that was released earlier this week, Maggie, Negan, Tommaso, Amaia, and Luther begin to formulate a plan to get to The Croat. But after Negan offers some advice that eerily sounds like it comes from experience, Maggie reveals the truth about his connection with The Croat – but also makes sure they know the whole story (interesting that Maggie assumes Negan's story is true):
Negan stepping in between Maggie and Luther after Luther crosses the line by not keeping Hershel's name out of his mouth was an important prelude to possibly the closest thing we've gotten to a thawing between the two. Between Maggie opening up about the guilt she feels about their last exchange before he was taken and Negan revealing what happened with his family since we last saw him (and why he's wanted by Armstrong), Cohan & Morgan offered us two hurting people who found a moment to put all of the in-the-moment drama on pause for some emotional bloodletting.
In Ivanek's The Croat, we have another finely-crafted "big bad" who's more deadly because of their mind than their physical strength. And he's found a way to tune the walker apocalypse to his advantage by converting rotting walkers into an energy source, liquid methane energy. And if there was any doubt about his skills as a world-class mental & physical torturer, those were put to rest in this episode – with The Croat reading Armstrong's letter being perhaps his cruelest move.
And then there's the ending – because they already don't have enough going against them?!? Negan knows that his old ghosts are usually no more than two steps behind at any given time – and sometimes, they can have a brutal impact on the present. As Luther learned the hard way, throwing our survivors' alliance into question. Meanwhile, Ginny's about to have a very different opinion about Maggie if the latter drops that match – yet another wildcard in play as the series heads into its second half.
The Walking Dead: Dead City Season 1 Episode 3 "People Are a Resource"
9/10
Heading into AMC's The Walking Dead: Dead City S01E03 "People Are a Resource" (directed by Kevin Dowling and written by Keith Staskiewicz), Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) and Maggie (Lauren Cohan) have new allies on their side in the forms of Jonathan Higginbotham's Tommaso, Karina Ortiz's Amaia, and Michael Anthony as Luther. But the trio doesn't realize that they're teaming up with two people with a whole lot of ugly backstory between them - not to mention Negan's past with The Croat (Željko Ivanek). And let's not forget how easily Negan was able to flip the switch and revert back to his old "Saviors" ways - or how Negan seemed more ashamed that she saw him than she seemed in seeing it. And speaking of The Croat, the madman has caught himself a valuable prize in the form of Armstrong (Gaius Charles) - and he plans on putting the marshal into the ring. And in the midst of all of this, Ginny (Mahina Napoleon) begins a very personal (and dangerous) personal journey of self-discovery. Was that a whole lot going on? Yup, and yet each storyline was given just the right amount of attention needed to keep each of them moving forward - as the threads began to tie together. And just when you think you know just how complicated things are going to get, a couple of twists are thrown our way that could change the game in a big way.
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